Field Notes: New Forests closes $130m Asia Forest Fund; Aleph Farms gets cultured beef approval; Scottish pension makes Nuveen timberland commitment
Agri Investor
Global coverage of the deals, firms and people driving agri-business today
New Forests closes Asia Forest Fund on $130 million; Aleph Farms gets cultured beef approval in Israel; Scottish Border Council Pension makes Nuveen timberland commitment; Bain Capital’s partners invest in carbon credit platform, deals round-up, and more. Welcome to Field Notes, the start-of-the-week briefing from Agri Investor.
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First look
New Forests closes Asia Forest Fund
New Forests has reached a final close for the second iteration of its Tropical Asia Forest Fund series, a closed-end fund focused on investments in developing markets in Southeast Asia.
The firm raised $130 million – short of a previously-stated target of $300 million and less than the $170 million raised for TAFF1, which closed in 2012.
New Forests has been busy fundraising in other areas over the past 12 months, too.
The Sydney-headquartered asset manager held a first close for its Australia New Zealand Landscapes and Forestry Fund, the latest in its series of flagship funds focused on ANZ, on A$450 million in December 2023.
ANZLAFF is targeting A$600 million and investors who have already committed include the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (its first forestry investment, to the tune of A$75 million), Swedish pension fund AP2, German pension group Bayerische Versorgungskammer, and unnamed Australian and German insurance companies.
The firm has also begun divesting assets from its Australia and New Zealand Forestry Fund 2, a fund that closed on A$707 million in 2014.
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Read the full coverage of TAFF2’s close here.
They said it
“Quite honestly, I think we see a very global effort to really minimize farming; to sort of squeeze it. They are hardly making any bones about it”
California State Representative James Gallagher discussed how his state’s farmers are under pressure from environmental regulations at the Land Investment Expo in Iowa
LP watch
Scottish pension makes Nuveen, a TIAA company timberland commitment
The Scottish Border Council Pension Fund has made a commitment of an undisclosed size to Nuveen’s Global Timberland Fund.